Follow up to 30-game NBA season

So, here are the playoff teams for the recently concluded NBA season.

Eastern.          Western

Atlanta.           Golden State

Cleveland.       Houston

Chicago.         Los Angeles Clippers

Toronto.          Portland

Washington.   Memphis

Milwaukie.       San Antonio

Boston.           Dallas

Brooklyn.         New Orleans

That is it.  In the interest of reviewing crazy predictions, let's look and see what would be different if there really only had been 30 games in an NBA season. 

So, if the season had ended after 30 games, all of the teams listed above would have still been in the playoffs except for two teams -- one from each conference. Phoenix fell out of the playoffs and Miami was the other playoff team after 30 games that missed the cut after the full 82-game season.  

New Orleans edged out Oklahoma City in some tie-breaker procedure -- the team we highlighted at the 30-game mark, while Phoenix had a late season losing streak to fall by the wayside. Miami was the team from the Eastern Conference that avoided being swept by the #1 seed and missing the lottery by a slim one game difference.  Projecting one step further, none of the #6-#8 seeds advanced to the second round, and they only won six games for all teams combined. 

Bring on the 30-game season!  Stop the charade of a real competition when the other 50 games are nothing more than a money grab by greedy owners. More excitement for the fans!

Funny kids growing up

Andrew declared himself the "Mayor of Friendville" last night. Erin had texted him last night and wanted to know what some guy at Wilsonville High School saw in her and why he wanted to date her. This brought on the lament, "I am like the mayor of "Friendville."

Delaney used the phrase "a bat in the cave" last night at dinner.  I am well aware that I am 49 years old and have been out of touch with the hip young lingo for a while.  However, I had not heard the term "a bat in the cave".  As a service to other dads out there that think they are hip and up-to-date on all the cool lingo, a "bat in the cave" means you have a booger that is visible, but still inside your nostril.

Just a normal night with teenagers

I arrived home from work today knowing that we had to get Delaney to soccer practice.  Delaney passed me on the stairs with cleats on, hair up and carrying two soccer balls.  "Hi Dad.  You just missed the talk about testicles.  I didn't know that people called testicles "balls".  I didn't know that they were shaped like balls.  Are you ready to go?  I don't want to be late."

Yes, it was about like that.  Just one run on sentence, kind of a stream of consciousness sort of thought coming out of her head, with laughter from upstairs as Andrew and Dana just burst into fits of laughter.

When we started with the attitude that we would answer our kids questions no matter how awkward they may be.  We were new generation parents that would answer things directly, with anatomical names, and explain things with an open mind.  Knowledge cannot hurt you know, it just can be really awkward passing that knowledge along.

More than one dinner conversation has turned to sex or who's dating who at school, and what two 7th graders who can't drive do when they are "going out".  It is funny, strange, and glad that they want to talk to us still about some things at least.  No illusions that the talk to us about everything and we are their primary source, but the communication between our kids and ourselves is better than it was for either Dana or I.

A different Mothers' Day

291 pounds.  Zero McChicken today.

It is the day after Mothers' Day and it was quite the day.  The kids and I cooked breakfast with Delaney worrying about everything the whole way.  She has watched Dana cooked who measures and weighs and chops everything beforehand and has them in little ramekins before she turns on the stove.  My cooking style is to measure things by look and then as I am stirring the pot and reading the recipe I come to that paragraph where it tells me I wasn't supposed to mix anything together until after I had browned them separately and me then saying, "I hope it turns out".

We had Dana's folks over for brunch and then we went out to wine tasting.  It did not go well.  Pop had been driving Mama crazy to begin with and then we had just made it inside the tasting room when Mama tripped and fell.  She has a black eye and a pretty good cut on the bridge of her nose from her glasses.  We got the bleeding to stop and Jean cleaned up, but by then the damage had been done.  I am not sure she will venture out any where after the latest fall.  That makes me sad.

As we drove back from the winery I thought of myself and my weight and my knees, and the fact that I have a tough time playing soccer with my children any longer.  I don.t want that.  I want to be healthy for a long, long time and be traveling through Europe when I am 80 years old.  I need to lose weight and get healthy, for me to enjoy life as I grow older.  The time to do it is now.

One last Mothers' Day note, we got Dana a new kitchen garbage can because the other one was broken.  I hope she had a good Mothers' Day and we will try again next year.